Although the Bosnians were
ranked ahead of Ireland in the FIFA
rankings at the time, the Irish had a relatively smooth passage through
the play-off matches. Robbie
Brady's goal in the fog-bound stadium in Zenica gave the Irish the
advantage of a precious away goal as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

A brace of goals from Jonathan
Walters in the return leg at the Aviva
Stadium in Dublin a few days later ensured that the Republic of Ireland
qualified for a second Euro championsip finals in succession.

It had been generally accepted
that Ireland had been been relatively lucky to draw Bosnia and Herzegovina
in the play-offs but that luck deserted the Irish when the draw for the
Euro 2016 finals was made in at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte
Maillot in Paris on Saturday 12 December 2015. Ireland was in Pot 4 of
four in the draw.

Euro 2016 Final Draw

The draw was made amid
great fanfare in the French capital. The Irish were drawn in Group E.
Unfortunately for Ireland the top seed in Group E was Belgium.
For the second tournament in a row Ireland had drawn the No.1 ranked team
in the World (at the time of the draw). To compound matters Italy
was added to the group to be folowed by Sweden.

As the Irish
football manager, Martin
O'Neill commented, "The draw couldn't have been any tougher.".
The sequence of matches was also determined by the draw process and Ireland's
group matches were as follows:

Date

KO

Opponent

Venue

13 June 16

5:00pm

Sweden

St-Denis

18 June 16

2:00pm

Belgium

Bordeaux

22 June 16

8:00pm

Italy

Lille

For many football
pundits and Irish fans the opening match against Sweden in Paris would
determine whether Ireland could progress to the knockout stages of Euro
2016. A win in this match would set the Irish up for a heroic campaign
but a loss would make it very difficult to make it out of the group.

However with an expanded
number of teams, 24, and just eight teams being eliminated at the group
stages it could be possible to progress to the next round with just three
points. Therefore one win or even three draws could be enough to send
the Irish through to the next round.

At the time of the Euro
2016 Finals draw the following were the vital statistics of Ireland's
(FIFA World Ranking 31) opponents in Group E:

As the Euro 2016 finals
kicked off the FIFA World rankings for the teams in Group E were as follows:

Team

Rank

Belgium

2

Italy

12

Ireland

33

Sweden

35

Ireland's Performance at Euro 2016

Ireland's participation
at the the Euro 2016 finals began with a very encouraging performance
against the lowest ranked team in Group E, Sweden. The Irish began very
brightly and could have held a three goal lead at half time. Despite this
the break-through goal came in the second half as Wes Hoolahan's sumptuous
half volley found the back of the Swedish net.

Unfortunately for the Irish
they couldn't hold out and a Zlatan Ibrahimovich cross was turned into
his own net by centre-half Ciaran Clark. The match ended in a 1-1 draw
and therefore the Irish avoided defeat however based upon the performance
the general consensus was that it was two points dropped. With the number
two and 12 FIFA World ranked teams yet to be played in the group the odds
were stacked against the Irish.